On 6 September 2003, Mahmoud Abbas resigned as Prime Minister and President Arafat asked Ahmed Qurei to become PM of an emergency government.

[1] Following a suicide bombing in Haifa on 4 October, Israel threatened to "remove" Arafat and urged him to act within 48 hours.

[2] The next day, on 5 October 2003, Arafat installed, by presidential decree, an eight-member emergency government headed by Qurei.

[8] Offices of the Palestinian authority in Gaza were burned down, and gunmen briefly abducted four French aid workers, the police chief and another official, demanding reforms.

After Arafat's death in November 2004 and Mahmoud Abbas' subsequent victory in the Palestinian presidential election in January 2005, Qurei was asked to continue in his post as caretaker prime minister and form a new government.